Being and Evangenital-ness

Austin, Houston, and beyond!

So much has happened in the past few days, it’s hard to find time to write about it all! Nirvan’s sister Dream surprised us in Austin by flying down to the show to lend a much-needed hand. The venue in Austin – The Brentwood Tavern – was really homey and cute. Outdoor wooden stage with an Oak Tree growing right through the middle of the stage, adjacent playground and you can even bring your dog there. I loved it. I could totally see myself moving to Austin someday, especially if I was going to have kids and needed to get them to some fresher air than Los Angeles has to offer.

Our hosts, Brian and Jeremy (Jeremy is his wife, and a woman… confusing, no?) were AWESOME!!! They fed us, bed us, and took such good care of us it was silly. Brian has some connection to SXSW and is going to try to pass some copies of the Evangenitals new album Everlovin’ (which is about to be available online at CD Baby and iTunes!) into the right hands. That would be awesome, as I’m eager to get back to Austin very soon. It is a great, great town full of music lovers and warm southern souls.

We also got to meet Chad there, who was an Evangenitals fan from Myspace. It was wonderful to have cyber-friend turn real-time friend and have the opportunity to play a live show for him… though we didn’t play “Never Again” which was the song that first made him fall in love with us. I think the “Work Song” made up for it, though, as both he and his friend Kelly, an Austin artist who works at Apple in customer service, were feeling the message of the corporate grind. There is a social revolution afoot and those two are hip to it. It was really nice to get to sit and talk with them for a bit.

Dream surprised us again by accompanying us on the bus to Houston, where Nirvan and her dad, Shaman Mullick, was spearheading our event at Lucky’s Pub. We decided to keep that on the down-low and surprise both her dad and Nirvan’s grandmother with her presence. En route she helped us with hammering down our production schedule, set-up/break-down procedures, etc. In a bus full of artists, organization and punctuality are not proving to be our strong suits. However, we’re getting pretty good at faking it!

Open, honest communication and frequent check-ins are critical when living in a bus with 8 people, 4 bunks, 2 couches, and a whole lot of driving to do. So is being as clean as you possibly can. ☺

Houston’s event was big, loud, and drunken. We performed like we were doing a stadium show, and it seemed to break through the ruckus and transmit the message. I was wearing one of The 1 Second Film’s “I’m on top of Christina Ricci” shirts and it made me feel pretty tough. Our group version of “Home” for the epic music video that is developing was incredible – we had Brett’s grandmother on stage dancing a jig with Nirvan’s dad, grown men playing tambourines, xylophones and slide whistles, and I was playing the bass. This video should be awesome in the end.

Early in the day, Lisa and I did an Evangina version of Home for Nirvan’s grandmother, which was quite an experience. The tender quite of the whole thing got me all choked up and I almost cried mid-song.

New Orleans deserves it’s own entry, as so much happened on Freemen street last night it’s going to take me a while to process it all. In fact, I’m still enjoying the experience on the inside, so I don’t want to muck it up with articulation just yet. I’m going to snuggle up with it for a while longer.

We’re about to pull into Tallahassee where we’ll set up for tonight’s presentation and show at FSU, then we’re driving all night to my mom’s house in St Pete, where we will pass out for a few hours before doing a show at St Pete High. After that, we get to have an evening off and some much needed sleep. And a hot tub! Woo hoo!

More to come... the bus don't stop till Oprah.